Hey dudes,

It’s been awhile since I wrote an article for this blog. The truth is, as I gain experience at stand-up, I see more grey areas, and have become uncomfortable offering advice beyond the basics. Right now I just want to focus on the craft and save the theory discussions for after sets with fellow comedians.

I’ve received positive feedback regarding some of the articles for noob comics, so I decided to leave the blog up. Just to make things easier for people I’m just going to list the most popular/useful articles here. Explore the rest of the blog at your leisure.

If you ever want to chat about any of this stuff, let’s do it in person. You can always find me at Comedy Bar (945 Bloor St. W) 9pm on Wednesday nights for the HUGE Chuckle Co. stand-up shows which I help host and produce, or Sundays at 9pm for Sunday Night Live (A weekly, brand new sketch comedy show with house band, and musical guests) featuring my pals The Sketchersons.

You can find more of my comedy writing at humour blog Bite.ca, and satirical newspaper The Beaverton

So remember, this isn’t a break-up, I’m still around. I just won’t be posting too much anymore. Thanks everyone for the love and support, I hope this blog provides a resource that I wished was around when I started doing comedy.

Tonight is the debut of a new weekly show at Comedy Bar (945 Bloor St. W) called Chuckle Co. presents.

As one of the three producers, my show is called “The Scramble,” and it’s going to be off the hook. We have free beers to give away, amazing comics on the line-up, and who knows, maybe someone will bring a dog to pet. Probably not, but WHO KNOWS, BAYBAY?

BUXTON SAD.

It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to the basement of the Crown and Tiger. It was one of my favourite rooms in the city, and where I learned what it means to be part of the stand-up community.

When I was first starting out, desperately clawing for stage time, this guy Ian Atlas had just moved to Toronto from BC and was trying to get some shows going. Despite me sucking shit, he let me go up, and since then has provided many many opportunities to perform for myself and tons of comics.

It was the home base for the Toronto Comedy Brawl, which has kept growing in scope every year.

It was a place where, more often than not, my favourite comics in the city would gather and trade stories, jokes, and ideas about this unique art form.

Hell, this year for my birthday, Ian gave me the keys to the basement for the night so I could run a show and hang out, and even some money to get this loaded:

So thank you Crown and Tiger, you had amazing staff, an amazing, smelly basement, and a million memories. I will miss you. And thank you Ian. Many of us owe you a debt of gratitude for creating a space in this city for comics to grow.

Obviously I have updated the open mike listing to reflect this news, which can be found here.

I’m glad I made the choice to put the blog on haitus for a bit, because the last few months have been very intense for me as a stand-up comic. If I had to describe it, I would say that it reminds me of when insects shed an exoskeleton, then a new one hardens. During this time they are a bit vulnerable, and have to ride it out until the new shell hardens, stronger and bigger than before.

I feel like that’s what’s been happening in my life as a stand-up. I have been re-examining the art form, and what it means to me, as well as taking some major risks onstage in order to hone in on what I want my voice to be.

Aside from physically needing a break from the workload that long theory articles require, I simply don’t feel comfortable offering advice at a time like this, as it is a tumultuous time.

Anyways. I’m looking at getting back to regular posts sometime at the end of November, and a new format, where the articles aren’t so long and far between. In October I will probably post an article after the Louis CK in Toronto, because I’m sure I’ll have a lot of thoughts about that.

Thanks to my good friend Catherine McCormick for a shout-out on her wicked blog, thanks to everyone who is still using the site. I always intended this thing as a poor man’s wikipedia to stand-up comedy, so it’s good to see people still use it even though there aren’t regular updates right now.

Just a quick update of the old open mike listing, mainly a new show on Thursdays at The Starving Artist, and correcting an out-of-date email address for the Corktown Comedy Show on Wed. Cheers, stay away from hobos, you guys!

Farewell, Hercules

I am still on a break from the blog, but I just wanted to put up a couple photos from the Kevin Sorbo Garbage Weekend at Comedy Bar. It was a nutty weekend, including two Sketchersons shows in two days. A best-of on Saturday with Sorbs, and a regular Sunday Night Live with Bob Kerr the following day.

Needless to say it was an exhausting, crazy, hilarious weekend. I am looking forward to switching gears this week and focusing a bit more on stand-up. Thanks for hanging in there with the blog if you are, I appreciate all the positive feedback I have received since deciding to take a break. I am working on a new theory article and we’ve got some guest posters getting lined up, and hope to get things back up to speed in the fall.

This was from a sketch that Jon Blair wrote called “The Gods Must Drink Cat Pee.”